I know some of you critics out there are saying, "Well, Philly won a terrible NFC East division and are a young team." Hey, the Saints still had to go into their house and beat them, which we all know hasn't been easy this season for the Saints.

What a great job by kicker Shayne Graham. This is why Sean Payton changed kickers before their playoff run. He nailed the game winner from 32 yards and also booted kicks from 36, 46 and 35 yards. So far with the Saints Graham is 6-for-6 on field goals. That’s pretty good for a guy who is on his 10th team in 14 seasons. Graham is the perfect kicker to have on your team for cold weather games since he has kicked for the Bengals, Giants, Ravens and Steelers.

What a game plan by Sean Payton from start to finish.

He wanted to establish the run, and the Saints did exactly that with Mark Ingram and Khiry Robinson. Those two guys rushed for 142 of the team’s 185 yards.

Ingram was a man on a mission. With Pierre Thomas out for the game, Ingram took over the role as the bruising runner. He toted it 18 times for 97 yards against the Eagles and didn't have a negative run.

Honestly, who in their wildest dreams would've thought Ingram would outgain the NFL’s leading rusher LeSean McCoy? If you would've bet on that, I'm sure you would've won a million bucks, because that's how big the odds were in my opinion.

When Ingram wasn't running hard, Robinson was getting it done. He did a great job on that final drive moving the sticks to set up the game-winning field goal by Graham. The reason for their big games was the offensive line. They did their job to block for those guys from the opening drive all the way to their last runs.

The offense really started getting into rhythm in the second half.

Drew Brees threw two first half picks but started finding his guys in the final two quarters. You can tell that Brees started getting comfortable. Plus it didn't hurt that the running game was helping him out in the passing game.

Rob Ryan had his defense ready to play, and when I say ready, I mean holding McCoy to 77 yards, which is something not many teams did during the regular season. The Eagles were 10-1 when McCoy had 20 or more rushes and at least one rushing touchdown during the regular season. It wasn’t a surprise they did a good job on McCoy, because they did the same to big names like Frank Gore and Marshawn Lynch. The NFL’s leading rusher was bottled up in the backfield a number of times. The Saints didn't let him get to the outside for any big runs. His longest run was a minuscule 11-yard run.

The Saints were essentially saying if the Eagles are going to beat us, Nick Foles would have to do it. Foles hurt the Saints inside the 10 a couple times for touchdowns, but other than that they did a good job of giving him different looks. Foles really couldn't do much down the field with the exception of DeSean Jackson's 40-yard reception. Even on that play the Eagles got away with a hold on the offensive line, and Jackson appeared to step out and come back in to make the catch. You've got to remember the Eagles came into the game as the No. 2 ranked offense in the NFL, and they were going to score some points. Ryan's guys did a good job holding the Eagles offense off while Brees and company found their rhythm.

To put a pretty black and gold bow on this win, you have to go back the playoff losses to the 49ers and Seahawks from a few seasons ago. The Saints had late game collapses, but this time they were the ones to come through at the end, putting an end to the road playoff losing streak.

Now the Saints have to continue being road warriors as they head back to Seattle, where they were blasted by the Seahawks 34-7 in December. It was the worst offensive performance in the Sean Payton and Drew Brees era. The Seahawks held them to 188 yards and Brees to 147 yards passing. That game was over in the first quarter.

The Saints open up the week as eight-point underdogs, but I'm sure that line will move a lot before next Saturday afternoon’s showdown in the Emerald City.